Bit by bit

Don’t ask “Why Windows?”

Not being a database expert and needing to set up PostgreSQL database in a Windows machine to do simple development with minimal fuss, the following is a simplistic MSDOS script to automate that:

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@ECHO OFF
@BREAK ON
@SETLOCAL

SET PG_HOME=path_to_pg_home
SET superuser=postgres

IF NOT DEFINED PGDATA GOTO :MISSINGPGDATA
IF EXIST %PGDATA% GOTO :DBEXISTS

SET PGBIN=%PG_HOME%\bin
ECHO Initialzing database with superuser name: %superuser%

%PGBIN%\initdb -D %PGDATA% --pwprompt --username=%superuser% ^
  --no-locale --encoding=UTF8 ^
  --auth-local=trust
  --auth-host=trust

GOTO :EOF

:MISSINGPGDATA
ECHO Please set the environment variable PGDATA before running again.
GOTO :EOF

:DBEXISTS
ECHO Database already initialized at %PGDATA%. Please specify a different %%PGDATA%%.

A few things to note:

Set the PostgreSQL home directory in line 5
Change the default superuser name in line 6 if necessary
Change authentication methods to whatever that’s appropriate: in this case, it just trusts all connections, so don’t use trust in production!

Once the initializing is completed, run pg_ctl start -D %PGDATA% -l logfile to start the database daemon. To stop it, run pg_ctl stop.

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MSDOS Script to Set Up PostgreSQL